He attended Lochinver House School, then Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Hertfordshire, and read American Studies at the University of Hull.
McCarthy was a journalist working for United Press International Television News at the time of his kidnap by Islamic Jihad terrorists in Lebanon.
He had recently arrived in Beirut when on 17 April 1986, two days after USAF airstrikes on Libya, WTN ordered him to leave.
While a prisoner, he learned that his girlfriend, Jill Morrell, was actively campaigning for his release, launching a group called "Friends of John McCarthy".
[5] In 1995 John McCarthy sailed around the coast of Britain with Sandi Toksvig, making a BBC documentary TV series, Island Race, and a book of the experience.